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neither the 1st edition rpg or the shadow chronicles one says anything about long starship Protoculture endurance is. certainly they are big enough ships that they could probably carry a fair bit, but they also have big powerplants and high energy use systems aboard like FTL drives and (in many cases) large scale weaponry.

i'm mostly interested in 2nd ed/shadowchronicles continuity, but i'll take whatever at this point.

my inclination would be to make the smaller human built ships limited to 6-12 months of PC, mostly because of the "1 year" time limit after Reflex Point. that mankind is limited to the supply immediately on hand aboard their ships and in the (somewhat depleted) factory sat stockpiles now that earth's stockpile got carted off by the regis when she left, and the 2nd PC factory matrix vanished with the SDF-3.

however i could see the zentreadi and master's ships carrying several years of the stuff by dint of sheer size and the time both types of ships are implied to go between visits to a factory sat or shipyard. nor did the Zentreadi seem to ever worry they were running out of fuel during their war with earth. the masters of course were but they'd just spent a decade travelling to earth the slow way without the ability to refuel anywhere. (since earth stole the factory sat(s).)

partly i'm asking because i have a house 'alternate universe' where i'm considering having the masters run across some zentreadi grand fleet remnants on their way to earth, wit the masters poaching any excess PC for their own use and gaining a small cadre of zent minions in the process. and am trying to figure out at what point in said process the masters would end up with so much PC they aren't resource strapped anymore when they reach earth. (something i want to avoid)

In 1E the SDF-3 and the Ikazuchi both have an engine endurance listed in the RT2:Sentinels RPG under their entry (60 and 30 year respectively).

In 2E the SDF-4 (found in Genesis Pits SB) has an Endurance of 15years listed (life support gives out before this, which could indicate either the SDF-4 is old or the ship was never fully stocked with PC and this is a theoretical capacity). The Masters Multi-Purpose Ships (Masters SB pg252-4) lists a 50year supply. The Zentreadi Flagship and Destroyer (Macross SB) both list a 100year supply.

i've generally assumed that the life support durations for large spacecraft are less about "how much air does it have" and more "when does it run out of food?"

and i didn't see those entries, i'll look at those and try to figure out how it shakes out.

glitterboy2098 wrote:i've generally assumed that the life support durations for large spacecraft are less about "how much air does it have" and more "when does it run out of food?"

and i didn't see those entries, i'll look at those and try to figure out how it shakes out.

Food is one thing, but then you'd also have air filtering and recycling. There is nothing protoculture will do to clean an electrostatic filter, nor will it particularly help biological recycling of oxygen. For one because you actually don't want the Protoculture to travel under its plant form, and secondly because its proximity could mutate even the algae you are using for this purpose.

Then there is water. Which should probably be recyclable for a while, but it still takes some minerals in it in the long run. Depending on which method they use, the shortage could come from chemical used to purify or clean the plumbing. Waste disposal is not mentioned and could be limited. Medical supplies are also not really mentioned, so we'd have to guess these would count as life support supplies.

And finally you have the limit of spare parts for the finer systems in charge of heating / cooling and lighting. Considering robotech and the lack of LED used in mecha construction, we can assume that the electrical systems on board UEEF ships to be somewhat out of the 90s. I don't necessarily have the research ready, but I'm assuming that after years of service, some of the cabling, light bulbs and heating components could start to be victim of corrosion, micro-fissures, and burnouts. Finer mechanical parts such as venting pumps and fans might also be subjected to this.
It is harder to tell for electronic circuit boards.

Considering the advances in bio-materials due to contact with the Zentraedi and Masters though, I doubt the problem would come from the struts and hull itself. (Thus avoiding the fate of BSG-75 in that other show...) Insulation and hard seals should probably hold until the power supply itself runs out. Outside of combat damage of course. Depending on the material used, soft seals could be more vulnerable and might have to receive more maintenance.
This means soft seal (latex, silicon, rubber, or whatever they use) might run out. Same goes for grease, oils, and hydraulic fluids... each not really a threat by itself, but that could lead to more catastrophic failures affecting the previously mentioned supplies.

glitterboy2098 wrote:neither the 1st edition rpg or the shadow chronicles one says anything about long starship Protoculture endurance is. certainly they are big enough ships that they could probably carry a fair bit, but they also have big powerplants and high energy use systems aboard like FTL drives and (in many cases) large scale weaponry.

i'm mostly interested in 2nd ed/shadowchronicles continuity, but i'll take whatever at this point.

RT2E definitely does have endurances listed for the onboard fuel of many ships in the "Maximum Range" section of their stats.

Humanity's first few fusion-powered ships are listed with 28 or 36 months of fuel, while the later protoculture-powered ships have decades of fuel. Fifty years seems to be typical of ships of the line like the Tristar-class, while some larger and particularly energy-intensive ships or particularly small ships have 10-15 years. That's just reactor fuel, though. The real limitation on the endurance of those ships is their storage for other essential commodities like food, water, medical supplies, ammunition, propellant for space flight, and fuel for their fighters and other auxiliary craft. Human ships meant for deep space operation carry, on average, enough supplies for an 18 month tour.

glitterboy2098 wrote:my inclination would be to make the smaller human built ships limited to 6-12 months of PC, mostly because of the "1 year" time limit after Reflex Point. that mankind is limited to the supply immediately on hand aboard their ships and in the (somewhat depleted) factory sat stockpiles now that earth's stockpile got carted off by the regis when she left, and the 2nd PC factory matrix vanished with the SDF-3.

While the RPG's numbers don't come from anything official, it's probably the case that the "1 year" reserve supply of fuel the UEEF has is more in the context of their ability to operate the mecha that are the backbone of their combat capability.

xunk16 wrote:Food is one thing, but then you'd also have air filtering and recycling. There is nothing protoculture will do to clean an electrostatic filter, nor will it particularly help biological recycling of oxygen. For one because you actually don't want the Protoculture to travel under its plant form, and secondly because its proximity could mutate even the algae you are using for this purpose.[/qu

Then there is water. Which should probably be recyclable for a while, but it still takes some minerals in it in the long run. Depending on which method they use, the shortage could come from chemical used to purify or clean the plumbing. Waste disposal is not mentioned and could be limited. Medical supplies are also not really mentioned, so we'd have to guess these would count as life support supplies.

And finally you have the limit of spare parts for the finer systems in charge of heating / cooling and lighting. Considering robotech and the lack of LED used in mecha construction, we can assume that the electrical systems on board UEEF ships to be somewhat out of the 90s. I don't necessarily have the research ready, but I'm assuming that after years of service, some of the cabling, light bulbs and heating components could start to be victim of corrosion, micro-fissures, and burnouts. Finer mechanical parts such as venting pumps and fans might also be subjected to this.
It is harder to tell for electronic circuit boards.

Robotech never really got into the gritty details of how things work the way Macross did, so we don't actually know much about the official setting's tech level outside of the immediate necessities of war. It's possible they've inherited self-maintaining versions of various life support technologies from Zentradi wrecks or captured factory satellites.